Bill Bergman, director of research for TIA, told The Texas Monitor that Texas scored poorly, as did almost all the states, for not accurately reporting its net position, using confusing accounts called deferred outflow and inflows.In a previous TIA report on financial health in which Texas earned a “D,” the watchdog group noted that Texas has “failed to disclose significant amounts of retirement debt” on its balance sheet, giving taxpayers “an unreliable and inaccurate accounting of the state government’s finances.”

Bergman said that Texas was also dinged because the finances are examined by the state auditor, a government employee. TIA prefers that states use third parties to audit finances, since they are more likely to provide unbiased, independent opinions. However, Bergman noted that only 15 states use third-party firms for those services.

Texas provides its reports in a relatively timely fashion, which helped its score. (Bergman said that TIA is still waiting on Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports from a handful of states.) Another plus was thatTexas produces easily accessible online reports.

“You have to recognize the fact that Texas is a big state with a lot of moving parts,” he said.

Overall, Texas tied for 27th place among the states, hardly a cause for celebration.

Chris Bryan, communications director for the Texas Comptroller’s Office, told The Texas Monitor that the office typically doesn’t comment on studies in which the office isn’t privy to all of the methodology involved.

States still don’t have to report retiree health care debt on their books, but that will change next year — and it will make the numbers even worse. AsThe Texas Monitor previously reported, Texas has $65.5 billion in unfunded retiree health care benefits (to go along with $45 billion in pension benefits it hasn’t funded).

The recent big drop on Wall Street could exacerbate pension debt since governments promise certain returns in their plans, whether the market provides that return or not.

“Now with the stock market going against us it’s not going to get any better,” Bergman said.

Johnny Kampis is a reporter for The Texas Monitor. Kampis formerly served a similar role at Watchdog.org. Over the course of his nearly 20 years in journalism, he has been published in such outlets as the New York Times, Time, Fox News, and Daily Caller.

Bergman states Texas was also dinged because the finances are examined by the state auditor. For the record, the state auditor’s position has been vacant for almost two years, and counting. Also, a review earlier this year of the top ten salaried employees in the state auditor’s office revealed seven were not CPA’s suggesting no professional auditing experience prior to their current government jobs – disappointing.